10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

by Dan Sullivan

Michelangelo was not born a great artist. He became one and then ultimately reached legendary levels by continually pursuing what I call the 10x process. He set out to do something far beyond anything he’d ever done, and also something innovative and non-linear to the preestablished standard or norm of his field. To complete the project at the level he desired required a full-on transformation of not only his skills and creativity, but also of his commitment, convictions, and identity.

After selling the Hercules, he was now mentally and emotionally a different person, with radically extended skills and more confidence than his former self. But also, professionally, he was positioned far differently than his former self.

psychology, there’s an increasingly crucial concept, psychological flexibility, which is defined as the ability to respond to obstacles successfully and in a way that is congruent with personal standards.6 Essentially, psychological flexibility is moving toward chosen goals even when it’s emotionally difficult. You acknowledge and accept your emotions, but they don’t control you.

A core aspect of psychological flexibility is viewing yourself as a context, rather than viewing yourself as content.10,11,12 This enables you to not overly identify with your thoughts and emotions, since you’re not your thoughts and emotions. Instead, you’re the context of your thoughts and emotions, and as you change the context, the content changes as well.

Throughout his life, Michelangelo continued to take on projects far beyond—impossibly beyond—his skill level. Most people are afraid to commit fully to the 10x process because it inevitably requires letting go of your current identity, circumstances, and comfort zone. Going 10x means you’re living based on the most intrinsic and exciting future you can imagine. That 10x future becomes your filter for everything you do, and most of your current life can’t make it through that 10x filter. What got you here won’t get you there.

Going for incremental progress is a 2x mindset, which at a fundamental level means you’re continuing or maintaining what you’re already doing. You’re letting the past dictate what you do and how you do it. 2x is linear, meaning you’re striving to double output by doubling effort. Do more of the same, just faster and harder. 2x is exhausting and soul-defeating. It’s extremely difficult to put the pedal to the metal and grind away for inches of progress. By contrast, 10x is so big and seemingly impossible that it immediately forces you out of your current mindset and approach. You can’t work 10x harder or longer. Brute force and linear methods won’t get you to 10x.

10x isn’t about more. It’s about less. Michelangelo understood this clearly. When the Pope asked about the secret of his genius, particularly in regard to the statue of David, Michelangelo explained, “It’s simple. I just remove everything that is not David.” Going 10x is the simplification of your focus down to the core essential. Then you remove everything else.

A non-linear change has taken place. It’s fundamentally a qualitative shift, more than a quantitative one. The transformation occurs by operating from a seemingly impossible and imagined future, and takes you in a non-linear and radically different direction and approach than what you (and everyone else) have been doing up to this point.

internal, your vision and identity. By changing these, everything else you’re doing simultaneously changes as well. You take your internal and emotional evolution and externalize that in the form of refined standards and results.

Everything becomes either 10x or 2x. Anything that’s not 10x doesn’t meet the filter and gets released from your attention. According to constraint theory, the greatest human bottleneck is attention. Our attention is our most finite resource, even more finite and valuable than our time. Indeed, the quality and depth of our attention determines the quality of our time. Most people’s attention is scattered, tugged, and seemingly never right here and right now. Going 10x means your attention is directly on far less, but it’s insanely more potent and impactful because it’s focused rather than spread thin.

There are two levels of freedom—surface-level freedom and higher-level freedom. Surface-level freedom is external and more measurable. This is “freedom from”—where you’re freed from ignorance, poverty, and slavery. But there is a more abundant kind of freedom that is internal and qualitative. This is “freedom to”—which is where you take full ownership over your life.16 Higher-level freedom requires commitment and courage. You choose your standard and live based on that standard, regardless of the associated risks or costs. No one can give you this higher-level freedom. A matter of conscious choosing, freedom to is purely internal. You could have all the external freedoms imaginable and yet not be free. 10x is the means, and freedom is the end.

four fundamental freedoms that 10x people seek: Freedom of Time Freedom of Money Freedom of Relationship Freedom of Purpose17

Expanding your freedom is the ultimate purpose of the entrepreneur’s journey, and there really is no end to how much freedom you can have or create.

Going 10x is the stripping away of everything that’s not “the David” of your core self and highest purpose.

radically novel concept, which I called the point of no return, that identified a core difference between wannabe entrepreneurs and successful ones. The point of no return is the moment of full commitment, wherein your identity and energy shift from avoiding what you fear to fully approaching what you most want.

To go for easy and simple, you’ll have to let go of everything in your life that is needlessly hard. More specifically, you’ll have to let go of everything you don’t truly want. 10x filters-out literally everything that isn’t 10x, which is most things in your life.

Operating non-linearly based on past assumptions and norms: 2x. Operating non-linearly based on an exciting and seemingly impossible vision: 10x.

Seemingly impossible or massive goals are highly practical because they immediately separate what works from what won’t, illuminating the few paths that have the greatest efficacy. Small goals are unable to clarify effective pathways because they are too marginal or linear from your current location.

“The only way to make your present better,” said Dan Sullivan, “is by making your future bigger.”

Having a 10x mindset means you know and understand that to accomplish more, you must actually do and focus on increasingly less.

Working too many hours means you’re living 2x, not 10x. It means you’re focused on effort, not transformation.

In order to clarify what matters from what doesn’t, you need to specify your goal.

Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which way she should go when she reaches a fork in the road. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

Without a clear goal, you can’t define the 20 percent that will effectively get you there and the 80 percent that’s taking you some other direction. Even still, when a goal isn’t much different from your current position, then you won’t need to change much to get there. Thus, you won’t need to separate the 80 from the 20, because when the destination or transformation is minor, then very little needs to change about what you’re now doing. This makes it difficult to pin-point where to focus your efforts and change and also stops you from identifying the 80 percent you’re still maintaining that isn’t serving you.

the second requirement for separating the 20 percent that matters and the 80 that’s taking you some other way is setting much bigger goals.

Only by stretching your goal far enough out can you parse-out the 80 percent of your current activities and focus that won’t get you there.

Going for 10x requires letting go of 80 percent of your current life and focus and going all-in on the crucial 20 percent that’s relevant and high-impact.

in order to achieve 10x, you cannot rely on your past self’s thinking. What got you here won’t get you there.

Only by clarifying and identifying with your 10x vision will it become obvious the 80 percent that is holding you back.

10x people are easier than 2x people.

2x is working in the business. 10x is working on yourself and working on the business.

2x is trying to optimize the horse and buggy, getting millimeters and inches for your efforts. 10x is stepping back and inventing the car, like Henry Ford did, where you’re getting miles for the same efforts.

10x is qualitative, not quantitative—it’s about different and better, not more. The more different and better you are for a highly specific type of person, the more asymmetric the upside in everything you do.

by making the commitment and hiring her assistant, she now had to figure out how to increase her revenue such that she could confidently pay her assistant. Necessity is the mother of invention. The needed supply always follows psychological demand—when the “why” is strong enough, you’ll find the “how.”

A core aspect of hope is pathways thinking,23 meaning highly hopeful people continually adjust their pathway until they ultimately find and create a way to their goal, even in the direst of circumstances.24

Linda made 10x jumps by increasingly applying Who Not How.28 Rather than staying caught in the 80 percent she didn’t love, she invested in “Whos” to handle the 80 percent, as well as to organize and manage increasing aspects of her business.

As Linda got more and better Whos on her team, and as she focused on an increasingly concentrated 20 percent that excited her, her business exploded.

This is a core Who Not How obstacle that causes many people to stumble, whether in real estate or any form of entrepreneurship—believing others can’t do your job for you. Also, believing your clients need you and only you to be the one manually performing the job. This is a myth born of fear and ignorance. When you test it, and let your Who take over and fully own the how, you re-train both yourself and your customers to see you and your work differently, and better. It becomes less about Whos doing it and more about the end result. Overtime, the 10x clients will love you for evolving and growing yourself and the 2x clients will leave, bothered, because you disrupted their status quo and comfort zone.

“An Essentialist produces more—brings forth more—by removing more instead of doing more.”

Chad’s 10x clients recognized and appreciated Chad’s evolution because they felt its effects. He was helping them expand their own vision and standards, and they were becoming far more successful and happier by following his example and guidance.

you are, they do so for their own self-preservation. Your evolution threatens their current security, and they want that security more than the freedom that you seek.

By embracing the 10x process, you’ll evolve internally and externally far more than the average person, although the 10x process is available to all people who choose freedom over security.

the ability to rapidly accept a new identity.

Your identity is fundamentally two things: it’s 1) the story or narrative you have for yourself, and it’s 2) the standards or commitments you hold for yourself.3 The scientific definition of identity is “a well-organized conception of the self, consisting of values and beliefs to which the individual is solidly committed.”4 Put simply, your identity as a person is what you’re most committed to. It’s the story about yourself you’re committed to, and it’s the personal standards you’re most committed to. A standard is a level of quality and norm you set for yourself. When something is truly a standard, it’s a commitment. You rarely if ever go outside or below your floor or minimum standard; otherwise it wouldn’t be a standard.

The 4 C’s Formula: Commitment Courage Capability Confidence

According to Prospect Theory, humans have an enormous aversion to loss.6 We fear and avoid loss far more than we seek gain. Loss aversion primarily manifests itself in three specific forms—1) continuing to invest in something unprofitable simply because you’ve already invested in it (i.e., sunk cost bias),7,8 2) overvaluing something you own, believe, or have created simply because it’s yours (i.e., endowment effect),9,10,11 and 3) continuing to do something you’ve previously done in order to be viewed by yourself and others as consistent (i.e., consistency principle).12,13,14 All of these loss aversion tactics make it extremely hard to let go of the 80 percent. Thus, it’s hard to let go of your current or former identity.

To go 10x, you live based on freedom. You choose the standards you want because that’s what you intrinsically want, and you’re not worried about other people’s opinions.

Were your standards chosen by you, or adopted by the norms of those outside of you?

What would happen if you dramatically elevated your standards? How can you move toward your 20 percent focus and mastery? What 80 percent would have to go?

As you embrace the 10x process, you’ll continually be doing and focusing on less. Yet, decreasing the number of things you do will increase the quality, depth, and impact by 10x.